MIX CHALLENGE - MC075 April 2021 - Winners announced

[Dodgingrain]

@Square
Appreciate the constructive feedback, the main vox is easy enough to fix which should shift the general frequency balance as well, if I get into the next round.

Hi just listenned through @Dodgingrain . The bass has some good tone and the low mids sound nice. Also when the megalomania part comes in it sounds really strong and the frequency range is nice and full.

Your main VOX are too bright tho. Theres something sticking out in the nasaly range that is a bit piercing on the ears. Maybe a stronger Deesser or a bit less EQ on the top end?

But again it sounds like a frequency inbalance as your lower tones are nicer and there are also some cool effects in there.

Good luck!

Square

[kirurg]

Hello everyone,


https://www.dropbox.com/s/nv6a3wyxnvj0y ... g.wav?dl=0


The tracks are very good, the song seemed almost like finished by setting
volume balances only.

To achieve different moods for different parts here are some noteworthy
tweakings I've made.

There are 2 types of plate reverb (UVI plate) I decided to use -
small room plate and bigger hall plate.

Lead vocals: EQ, TubeTech CL1B mkII compressor, small room and big plate reverb

Backgr vocals: EQ, some multiband compression, UAD 1176 revA limiter. Some vocal
tracks here has send fx to the small plate reverb.

Drums: The snare & kick got SoundToys Decapitator, EQ and a little Waves L1 limiter.
Rooms and OH some Cubase stock compressor and EQ.
All drums group having Slate VCC mixbus, EQ, Acustica Audio Sand3 comp and Waves Kramer Tape.

Guitars: EQ, Couple tracks sending to small plate, the whole guitars group has Acustica Audio PINK pre,
EQ, Cubase stock compressor.

Synths/Keyboards: Electric pianos got some phaser and vibrato, sending a bit to the small plate
together with Acoustic Piano.

Bass: probably the most processed one - the most volume automations, UAD 1176 comp/limiter, Decapitator,
Waves L1 limiter, EQ.

There is some volume automation taking place in almost every track.

Master bus: colorization things added here: Acustica Audio's Lime Pre and from
Nebula's library C660 mk3.

[Zerododo]

Hi everyone,

here's my submission:
https://www.amazon.it/clouddrive/share/ ... H2NLm7zSzg

I mixed all ITB in Reaper.

Here's some screenshots:
https://www.amazon.it/clouddrive/share/ ... X3ABAsWqmK

This is my first contest here and I would like to thank all of you for the opportunity.

Any feedback is more than welcome.

Cheers from Italy

[Square]

Hi @kirurg

Had a listen through, dont have time for a very long review right now, so just briefly, you vocal tone is increadible, i love it and some of the dynamics and volume automation is just spot on! Very enjoyable.

I did notice that there are times where the harmonies just seem to be missing or nearly missing, during these times youve treated the main vox to make them sound good though, sonically its great, but personally i think the track overall benifits from these harmonies being present and a bit more front.

other than that, maybe a touch more gain on the drums at parts?

Ive actually listenned through nearly 3 times by this point lol, i do really like the mix overall, one of the best ive heard.

hope that helps

Good luck!

[maxovrdrive]

Thank you Endicott Dread. Kudos on the recording. Nicely done.
Thanks again, Mister Fox.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1fyCyOP ... sp=sharing

DRMS
snr: compression - eq - plate
hats: eq
toms: eq
oh: m/s eq
808: eq
stomp: eq
kik pitch: eq - room
timpani: eq
snr1: eq

fx used: room1
room2

EP eq - chorus
PNO eq

fx used: blackhole

GTR
fx used: spring
AC GTRS
flutter: eq
delicious: eq
ac3+dbl: eq - clean amp
pick (low and high): eq - clean amp

SYNTHS juno
choir: eq
strings: eq

fx used: blackhole

LV1 brightened using eq then controlled using compression and soothe

fx used: chamber
room

LV2 brightened using eq then controlled using compression and soothe

fx used: plate

BGV brightened using eq then controlled using compression and soothe

fx used: room
plate

MASTER bettermaker eq - tape - multiband

[jules666]

Hi All,

Thanks to Endicott Dread for providing the song and Mr Fox for hosting this contest/game

I have to say been a longtime since I had so many tracks to play with, not a pro at this and I only got into mixing when I was in a band many many years ago and studio time cost a fortune. Recently been enjoying playing around with audio again, but my recently built "super PC" really did struggle.

Had to freeze so many tracks (which I never normally do). It did however make me research tweaking my DAW (Reaper) a lot more, and I eventually worked some settings out which did improved the responsiveness. Will keep looking into though as still not perfect

Anyway how I approached bringing the tracks in and grouping them was originally based on the track description provided by Endicott Dread.
Below is an overview of what I tried to achieve...hopefully some of it worked.

Just about all tracks had a Neve 80 Series Console strip on (Lindell 80 from Plugin Alliance). Used the EQ and compressor to balance each track as I felt right.


Bass:
Duplicated track and used two different amp sims to hopefully create a rich, creamy sort of sound (not sure if that worked )
There was also a delay track (Waves H-delay) which I used to try and replicate track 15 (not used), I also brought the effect in here and there later in the song (but not as prominent as the 1st time).
Volume automation also on Bass to try and sit it in better.


Drums:
EQ and compression where needed, kick/snare/OH/Hi-Hats/Tom/Crash etc fed into a "Main Drum" bus, which had some saturation (Black Box), further EQ and compression to try and gel it, this also then went into a clipper as I think at the time I wanted to get a little more out of the drums (probably not needed by the end as hardly doing anything....but left on).

Drum Room: EQ and compression, some tranient shaping to increase the attack but blended only ata round 60% wet (SPL transient designer used)

Kept the Abbey Perc (21) out of the "Main Drum" bus and some eq and slight compression.

"Drum verb" Bus: using some EQ to remove top and bottom ends, going into an Arturia Plate reverb. Sent some of the room to this along also with some snare/tom and little of the cymbols.

"Drum Crush": Crush bus for the drums using Baby Aduo "I heart NY" and some saturation with the Black Box, then also clipped the hell out of it. Sent some of the Room and little kick and snare over to this one.


Electric Piano:
Extra EQ, and a transient designer (SPL) to give it a little more attack.

Additional Instruments (20,22,24,25,29,34):
Channel strip again, for EQ and basic compression.

Acoustic Guitar: Some further EQ'ing on the tracks, then some compression on the main "Acoustic Guitars" Bus.

Piano:
Replaced the intro section with 38 & 39.
Added some saturation with Black Box again on the main bus. Each track had a little Tranient Shaping (SPL) to bring a little more attack and sustain out in places. Also added Arturia Plate reverb on the bus with a quick decay time and only around 30% wet coming through.

The above groups all were fed into an "Instrument Bus":

There was also the following busses with:
Flanger
Chorus
Delay
Reverb
Various instruments were sent to these buses as felt fit at the time, these went straight to the master bus.

VOCALS

Created buses with the following effects in:
Tape: (ADT2)
Saturation: Black Box
Verbs: Plate with Arturia again & another with more delay using CLA Epic.
Brighten: Using the Scheps method with a couple of Waves PuigTec's that have a CakeWalk LA2 leveling type amp in between them

Vocals were fed to these various effects bus, with some automation here and there for certain sections.

Chorus Bus:
EQ/Comp on the tracks then a little multiband compression, followed by another SSL type compressor

Verse Bus:
MAG EQ4 and Dangerous Bax EQ as they added a little more colour, also Waves Sibilance to reduce that a little. Used the Cakewalk LA2 to try and keep the vox level.

Stomp & Clap:
EQ/Comp on the tracks with the Lindell 80
Main bus had further EQ, LA2 to level things then some Black Box satuation before going into a multiband compressor. I then clipped (Kclip 3) the signal to get a little more punch out of it.

Master Bus:
SSL type comprossor to give it some gentle compression over the entire mix.

Link to my Mix:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GedsYy ... sp=sharing

[d8bflup]

After skipping a few mix challenges, I'm happy to participate again. And what a song...

As always, the tracks were loaded in Studio One, wich was only used for playback and some volume automation. Mixing was 99% done on my Soundtracs CM4400 with a selection of outboard dynamics & FX

In contrast to the other Mix Challenges, I felt very little EQ and compression was needed. The main trick was balancing everything and placing it in the stereo image. I used compression only on a few select tracks, this brought me in a dilemma when checking wether my mix was in the agreed specs. I hit -19,6 LUFS but had a true peak of -1,03dB. I didn't want to alter the dynamics of my mix, so I left it at that, hoping my measuring software (Expose) would give the same results as Mr Fox's. I normally prefer a little more margin.

A short recap of the processing. Since my desk has only 32ch, I had to group quite a lot

Kick was processed maybe the heaviest of all tracks: a little EQ on the desk, Lindell PEX-500 (pultec style EQ), Transient Designer and finally some dbx 510 to boost the sub lows
Snare got some extra snap on the desk EQ, transient designer and a Lindell 7x500 compressor. And of course some SPX 990 plate reverb
Toms were EQed on the desk and passed trough a Aural Axciter
OH, crash and rooms were grouped together and balanced in software, on the desk I removed some low and added some highs
Percussion and bells, no processing
All channels contributing to the "we will rock you" vibe got grouped in a mono channel, all EQed in Studio one using the softube Console 1. This channelwas also sent to the SPX
Bass, was heavily EQed on the desk and pu trough a dbx 560 compressor
Rhodes and acc piano were both EQed on the desk and both got some reverb (the rhodes maybe more than a little) from th TC Electronic M3000)
All Acc guitar parts were grouped in a stereo bus and quite heavily EQed on the desk. In Studio one I added some chorus from the TC Electronic 1210 plugin. Some short Hall from the M3000 was added.
Elec guitar was just EQed on the desk, I plyed around with some cab modelling plugin, but it didn't improve the sound. I found the elec guitar sound the worst sounding track of the song, but found no real way of improving this sound
Lead vocal was just giving some air with the high EQ on the desk, rather heavily compressed with a KT-76. For FX, I used the TC Electronic DVR250 plugin, on an aux from the desk. A TC Electronic D-Two was used for a gentle 1200ms delay. In two places I added a really noticable 1200ms delay, automated in Studio one
Voc harmonies got almost the same treatment as the lead vocal (reverb & delay), no compression however
The synths were also grouped and, very little EQ, the grouped channels were sent to some guitar pedals (reverb & delay) via an aux. I could have used one of my regular outboard FX, I just felt like the pedal sound fitted the synth sound
The rpinted vocal FX were mixed in very gently, no processing
The choir and strings were grouped together in a "heaven" stereo track and revieved an abundant dose of DVR250 reverb

After I printed the first version of the mix, I thought about tweaking the extreme dynamic of the mix (although I like it this way. However, my desk decided, enough is enough. I get some serious distortion on the right output. That's the price you pay for using 36 year old equipment. So in th unlikely event that I'm picked for second round, I'm in a bit of a pickle here :-)

The Mix:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/8c4at2169xud2 ... p.wav?dl=0

Thanks again for this great opportunity

cheers from Belgium

[kirurg]

@Square
Thank you for listening and opinion.

[germano]

Hello everybody

Here's my submission:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ggoCvH ... sp=sharing

I use Reaper Daw.

BUSSES

Made busses with similar instruments with Neutron (EQ Comp Exiter) in all busses.

LEAD VOCAL

On vocals i use a lot of automation instead of a lot of compression to not deteriorate the vocal.
All the mix is made around the lead vocal. Everything must give some space to the lead vocal.

BACKVOCALS

On the backvocals i try to let them behind the lead vocal with lower volume and longer reverb when the lead vocal is leading.

GUITARS

Sidechain on Guitars and piano to give some space for vocals. Those sidechains are made on dynamic EQ (Neutron) instead on Compressor. The sound is only afected when the voices are on.

KICK AND SNARE

For the transients i use Neutron transient shaper (kick and snare).
On the snare i use the Neutron exiter to put more harmonics on it.

SENDS

Use the folowing sends:
- Short reverb (Neoverb)
- Long reverb (Neoverb)
- Stereo enhancer (Imager)
- Reverb for arpeggios (Neoverb)

LAST NOTES

Instrument are fighting each other in diferent moment turning automation the most important ingredient of this mix. Automation on volume and/or effects (automating bypass parameter).
Never made so much automation.

[Arthur Labus]

Hello everybody !
Very thankful for the oppurtunity and here is what i've done:

Specs:
Tracks set to 0 VU. Izotope Neutrino and NLS Channel (Neve) on every instrument bus.

DRUMS acoustic:
Drum Bus - Thrillseeker VBL (light compression + trafo processing), Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)
Kick - SonEQ with PulTech kick trick at 30Hz
Snare - Waves CLA Drums, adding some compression, EQ in highs and lot of hall
other tracks without processing

DRUMS electronic:
Drum Bus - Thrillseeker VBL (light compression + trafo processing), Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)
CH Snr1.dup2.07_01 - u-he Protoverb (wide room setting)

BASS:
Bus: Overloud Gem EQ550, Waves Scheps 73 (clean bass), GVST GMonoBass for mono frequencies below 150Hz

Bass Stem_03: WA Fundamental Bass, Bass Professor
CH Juno Bass - Arturia Chorus Jun-6
other tracks without processing

LEAD VOCAL
Bus: TDR Nova as dynamic de-esser, Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)
LV MST Raw Stem - Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing), Waves CLA Vocals (automation on delay)
- u-he Protoverb /Klaus Trofobik setting) in II Verse
- small parts are send to Wave Arts Convology XT / Tonebooster TB Reverb / Waves Abbey Road Chambers
Saturn Parallel and FX stem remains unprocessed

BACKING VOCALS
Bus: Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)
VS BG's - Waves CLA Vocals to brighten them up a little
Choir stem unprocessed

Chorus VOCALS are exlusive send to 4 tracks with Waves CLA Vocals (different settings) automated part after part.
Bus: ReaEQ (cutting low end below 150Hz bringing down 3 dB at 400 Hz), Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing)

RHYTHM GUITAR
Thrillseeker VBL (light compression + trafo processing), Toneboosters Sibilance (harshness de-essing), Waves Brauer Motion

ACOUSTIC GUITARS
tracks unprocessed, Black Rooster Audio VHL-3C high/low pass filter at 100Hz/15kHz

KEYS
Bus: ReaEQ (cutting low end below 150Hz bringing down 3 dB at 400 Hz)
ELEC Piano MSTR - Nomad BusDriver (compression/saturation)
ELEC Piano CH MSTR unprocessed
VS Juno_02 - Soundtoys Radiator (saturation)
CH sweep synth - Wave Arts Tube Saturator Vintage (saturation)
Juno CH - Wave Arts Tube Saturator Vintage (saturation)
CH Arp Epiano - Klevgrand REAMP (saturation)

PIANO
Used tracks 38/40 at the beginning
Those tracks and Piano Master Bridge are with brainworks bx_console N
Track 35 is unprocessed

STRINGS
Acustica Audio Celestial conole, mostly for stauration

FX
Applause - added automated u-he Protoverb for more ambience

Overall a lot of volume and pan automation

Master Bus:
NLS Bus (Neve) analog summing, Acustica CoralEQ (pulling down 350 Hz a bit),Waves TG12345 console with subtle EQ, Density MkII compressor (glueing), Toneboosters ReelBus tape sim, Toneboosters Sibilance, Charly Limited analog gain
as metering: Toneboosters TB_Barricade, Youlean Loudness Meter

WAV: https://drive.google.com/file/d/158n_4u ... sp=sharing

WAV 24bit/44kHz, round 1,2 dB headroom / loudness -17,6 LUFS

Good succes everybody !